“I looked at him and said, ‘Hey, Pedey, we’ve lost 89 games and (the Orioles) are going to the playoffs,’ ” Hazen recalled. “Then he turned and started screaming at me: ‘I don’t care how many games we’ve lost. I don’t care. That guy is out!’ ”

Pedroia laughed yesterday at a retelling of that story. After all, it was classic Pedroia, who never fails to act as though he has just chugged one too many bottles of 5-Hour Energy. Like the Energizer bunny, his motor keeps going and going.

But the episode in Baltimore meant so much more. Pedroia isn’t merely the Red Sox’ All-Star second baseman. He is their answer to Derek Jeter, the player they hold up as an example for impressionable prospects and peg as the centerpiece of what general manager Ben Cherington often calls “the next great Red Sox team.”

And with his outburst at Jones, or by playing last season’s final meaningless games despite a broken pinky finger and an injured thumb, Pedroia was trying to tell his teammates that last year’s debacle was unacceptable.

“This is my life,” Pedroia told the Herald yesterday. “As a team, we spend more time together than with our normal families. I don’t want to have another season of losing 90-whatever games. That’s not going to happen.”

Pedroia never imagined a year like 2012, certainly not after the blessed start to his career. In 2007, his first full season in the majors, the Red Sox won the World Series. They came within one win of capturing the pennant in 2008, then made the playoffs again in ’09.

“I thought it was easy, man,” Pedroia said. “And you expect that to happen every year. I still do.”

But the Red Sox finished third in 2010, when Pedroia missed the season’s second half with a broken bone in his foot. Everyone knows what happened next. Cue the September 2011 collapse.

That was nothing compared to last season. It wasn’t so much that Pedroia posted a .797 on-base plus slugging percentage, his lowest in six seasons, but rather that the Red Sox devolved into a drama-filled soap opera under manager Bobby Valentine.

Even Pedroia wasn’t immune to controversy. From his Patriots Day defense of Kevin Youkilis that undermined Valentine’s authority, to a report that he took a photo of the manager sleeping on his desk, it was widely presumed Pedroia was among a group of players who wanted Valentine fired, a perception he continues to dispute.

“Bobby didn’t go out there and get any hits or make any errors or do any of that,” Pedroia said. “We lost those games. It’s on us. It’s the players.”

It’s also in the past. Valentine was replaced by John Farrell, whom Pedroia likes and respects. And when Pedroia wasn’t training in Arizona (“straight bodybuilding,” he joked) or taking a family vacation to Hawaii, he stayed in close contact with Farrell, following each roster move with the interest of any season ticket-holder.

Farrell recently recalled driving to Cape Cod for a charity event when he received a call from Pedroia, who offered suggestions on how the Red Sox can improve.

“I think he’s exaggerating a little bit,” said Pedroia, who nevertheless admits to having at least 10 offseason conversations with Farrell. “He probably said that because I’m always excited.”

Said Farrell: “We all know Dustin. It’s not about what he can accumulate from a personal standpoint. He doesn’t give a damn about being that guy. He cares about the Red Sox and how we can perform to our best. He quickly becomes a go-to guy among the players.”

Pedroia arrived in camp Sunday and picked up where he left off last year, already talking to several young players, including 20-year-old shortstop prospect Xander Bogaerts.

“He’s kind of like the captain,” Bogaerts said, even though Farrell doesn’t plan to have a “C” stitched to Pedroia’s jersey.

Said Pedroia: “When I got called up, the first thing they taught me was, when you show up to the field that day, your record doesn’t matter, your stats don’t matter, nothing matters but winning the game. I think we got away from that. That’s the biggest thing that needs to come back.”

Pedroia’s contract runs through 2014, but it’s expected the Red Sox will begin talking to him in spring training about an extension. Yesterday, he announced his objective for this year, even if it sounds ludicrous after last season.

“Our goal is to win the World Series,” Pedroia said. “I know everybody thinks that’s not (a reachable) goal right now, but it is.”